


SQW - Day 1: How they met

by jeanyoo1



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Actress-Regina, Alternate Universe - Actors, Alternate Universe - Celebrity, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Bakery and Coffee Shop, Celebrity Crush, Emma-Barista, F/F, Fan-Emma, First Meeting, Meeting cute, Online Dating, Tindr, barista, celebrity, dating app
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-30
Updated: 2017-01-30
Packaged: 2018-09-20 19:55:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9510524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeanyoo1/pseuds/jeanyoo1
Summary: One evening Regina Mills and her friend and manager Trina opend a Tindr Account for Regina - it was just for fun and see how woman these days present themself on the market. It turned out to be a good desicion for Regina because she met someone she didnt expect.Day 1: Celebrity + Day 2 Coffee Shop





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I dont own once. Im sorry im not a native english speaker and havent found a proof reader on such a short notice. It was a experiment - kind of. Im not to much into Tindr just thought the Idea of meeting your celebrity crush over it would be cute.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Update: Febuary 1: Thanks to the awesome PlayingWithShadows who offered her help and started to beta the story ;)

 It all really started with a bet, a joke even. When 'Happy Ending' actress Regina Mills and her manager, Trina Bell downloaded the Tindr app and created an account. After a glass of wine each - okay maybe a bottle each - they decided that what they were about to do could be fun.

Who would really believe that an actress of her caliber would actually make an account on a dating sight? Especially since everyone thought she was a cold hearted bitch who wasn’t capable of love. Surely people would wonder why said actress changed her settings so only women appeared on her dash - since she wasn’t gay – or was she? With those thoughts in mind, she ended up 'liking' more hot women than she probably should have.

She was surprised about the amount of people who actually liked her back. _Haven't these people heard of all the old, creepy guys who take pictures of young and beautiful celebrity’s just to meet up with girls?_ Regina got tons of messages from people, claiming that they were huge fans, and that they couldn't wait until she starred in her next movie.

She also received quite a few messages informing her that she had made a mistake on putting women as her preference. All the messages told her to check her settings, because surely she'd got it wrong. To these messages, the brunette just rolled her eyes and deleted them, telling herself that she could do exactly as she wished.

Unsurprisingly, Regina was sent a few messages who told her to get lost. _'Do you really think girls will fall for you, an old dude, pretending to be Regina Mills?'_ \- that's what the majority of the messages said, because surely it couldn’t be true that the brunette was actually Regina Mills and wasn't pretending. An actress like her wouldn't need a silly little app like Tindr, would she?

And, coming with the profession of an actress, she received numerous crude images from men who were searching for hot lesbians to have threesomes with. Or, these idiotic men had it worked into their thick skulls that they could convert her into heterosexuality. Jackasses. But apparently, that kind of behaviour was normal.

Regina and Trina laughed loudly at a message that raved about how the last picture she posted was obviously just a well-doctored photo from her Twitter, because they could see the evidence of Photoshop on the picture. Of course her photoshoot pictures were Photoshopped - that was what reality in her business looked like. No one wanted to see Regina Mills on a high class magazine with the skin problems she had from time to time, or that small wrinkle under her left eye.

After a while the two woman had had enough of it and called it a night. Trina had had too much to drink, and was way to drunk to drive home, so Regina lead her to her guest room which was already prepared – she knew Trina wouldn't have stayed sober. Despite the fact Trina always claimed she would leave at the same time every evening, she never did, so why have the bother of having to quickly prepare the room at the time when the brunette knew exactly what would happen?

 

—

It was only hours later when Regina woke up. Her head hurt like hell, but she knew she wouldn't be able to go back to sleep, since she had trouble getting back to sleep once she'd woken up. 

Regina checked her phone and was blown away by the 124 messages she had been sent on Tindr – _what the hell is Tindr?_ She furrowed her brows in confusion, unable to remember when the strange app had made an appearance on her phone. But, after a minute or two, what her and Trina did last night came flooding back to her.

The actress' first thought was to just delete the app, since she hadn't even meant to download it in the first place. However, the curious side of her was longing to know what the messages she had been sent said. So, with a deep breath, she opened the app, telling herself it was just one last time before she deleted the app for good.

 

**_ES: Hey ;)_ **

**_ES: Please, as if you're actually Regina Mills._ **

**_ES: By the way, the second picture looks creepy - of all the amazing pictures of Regina Mills, you chose that one?_ **

**_ES: How old are you really?_ **

 

Regina was annoyed by the beauty of the woman who had sent her the messages - if she was really the woman her profile picture she said was. The young woman had what appeared to be soft blonde hair, emerald green eyes and from a first glance, an extremely hot body. Regina typed back a message, annoyance flickering inside her gut.

 

_**Regina Mills:** _   
_**What's wrong with you?** _   
_**Why are you bothering to send me messages if you don’t believe I’m Regina?** _   
_**And anyways, why should I believe you're really the person on your profile picture?** _   
_**You could be the old creepy man, not me.** _

 

_**ES:**_  
 _ **I didn't bother, my friend Ruby did.**_  
 _ **She screamed in my ear about how she found out**_  
 __ **that 'Regina Mills' was nearby. And, while I was recovering  
** **from the ringing in my ears, I explained to her that you were  
probably just another impersonator. Ignoring my warnings,  
she swiped the page. I had no choice.**

**_Regina Mills:  
Yeah sure. But why did you write to me then?  
Let me guess... Ruby again?_ **

_**ES:  
Well you probably don’t believe me but she was  
the one who wrote the 'Hey ;)' – I admit that the insults are all mine ;) ** _

_**  
** _

_**Regina Mills:  
Okay let's say I believe you (which I'm not sure I do),  
why are you still writing with some 'old creep'?** _

_**  
** _

_**ES:  
Good point - 1:0 to you 'Miss Mills'. ** _

__

_**Regina Mills:  
Don’t call me 'Miss' - it makes me feel old. ** _

_**  
** _

_**ES:** _   
_**You probably are - let's be real.** _   
_**How old actually are you and what's your name?** _   
_**Let me guess... something creepy, like: Larry, Herbert or Mike? O** _   
_**h no, I know; how about Donald? That's a really creepy name!** _

__

_**Regina Mills:  
Haha, I've never laughed so much in my entire life *rolls eyes* ** _

**_Why do I need to prove myself and you don’t, 'ES'? That's not even a real name._ **

****

**_ES:  
If you are some kind of serial killer and I told you my name,  
you could probably find out where I live and_ _cut me into pieces._**

****

**_Regina Mills:  
Did you just refer to my movie 'Zero'?_ **

**_  
_ **

**_ES:_ **   
**Congratulations! You are very well prepared**   
**for a creep who just wants to get in girls' pants.**   
**'Zero' was one of Regina's very first movies**   
**\- only a few people knew she was in it since she wasn't listed.**

**_Regina Mills:_  
Think about it 'ES' - maybe I am Regina by any chance?  
Damn... I don’t even understand why I'm trying to **   
**make you believe I'm actually her. You're the one with just**   
**one profile picture and the name 'RegalSavior'.**   
**What kind of a name is that?**

**_  
_ **

**_ES:  
And you think 'RedDelicious' is much better?_ **

 

_**Regina Mills:  
At least I actually have more than one picture,  
and I have my name on my account.** _

_**  
** _

_**ES:** _   
_**They're all photoshoots from Regina's done.** _   
_**The order of your posts are in the same order as on her website.** _   
_**Greetings Emma** _

**_  
_ **

_In that moment, Regina realized that this woman was right. She hadn't meant to do it on purpose, but she had just copied the newest set of pictures from her website last night. But anyways, how would Emma know that?_

 

_**Regina Mills:  
Looks like she has a name after all!  
How do you know about the order of my photos? Are you a fan?** _

_**  
** _

_**Emma: Maybe. Well yes - I am a fan of the real Regina Mills.** _   
_**So to end this chat nicely and promptly – I'm a lesbian and I'm single;** _   
_**so sorry, but there's no chance you're ever going to get a chance to** _   
_**watch me and my  future girlfriend get sweaty between the sheets.  
Have a nice day. Bye. ** _

__

Regina had found herself liking her conversations with the woman; it had been refreshing to talk to someone who had actually spoken more than the few words most people spoke to her when they were star struck the moment they saw her. And, if this woman on the picture really was Emma, Regina was very interested in getting to know the wonan a bit better. 

 

She didn’t understand why she wanted to get to know the woman better, but it had been five years since Daniella died and all the meaningless flings with colleagues didn’t do it for anymore her. That was why she scrolled through her phone's old pictures, thumb hovering over one she hadn't posted on any other social media network. The photo was of her on set, inside her trailer with little to no imagination of her upper body.

 

Without any further warning, she sent the picture to Emma. She loved way the name 'Emma' rolled off her tongue, and she found herself imagining how she might call the name out in a different situation. _Gosh, Mills... when did you become so desperate?_

 

 

_**Emma:** _   
_**Where did you find this?** _   
_**I've never seen that picture of Regina, and I've seen them all.** _   
_**Did you hack her cloud or something?** _

__

**_Regina Mills:  
Excuse me! Are you accusing me of cat-fishing?_ **

 

**_Emma: Prove you're really her._ **

 

Regina had no idea why she did it, but she wanted Emma to know that she was real - and for some bizarre reason, she wanted to carrying on talking with the annoying blonde.

**_Regina Mills: How?_ **

****

****_Emma:_  
If you really are her – do you get newspapers?  
Of course, the real Regina is very educated and would  
probably receive lots of different newspapers.  
Send me a picture of you and the newspaper you got this morning. 

****

The actress rolled her eyes. Why am I even doing this? I shouldn't need to prove myself! It took while for Regina to put on some light make up, find something suitable to wear and most importantly to go to her mailbox and pick up the newspaper from this morning.

 

_**Emma:  
Ha see -  I knew you were just some creep.  
I really hope no other girls fell for that. Have a good life.** _

_**  
** _

_**Regina Mills:** _   
_**Damn woman give a girl some time - it's only 8:45am!** _   
_**Do you really think I look like a goodness whilst lying in bed?** _   
_**I had to get ready.** _

__

Regina took a picture of herself sitting with a cup of coffee and the newspaper of the day, an easy smile on her face.

 

On the other side of the town, Emma Swan nearly fell from her chair in surprise. She was looking down at the very same newspaper she had started to read only a minute ago. That proved it. That account was indeed Regina Mills. She was chatting with Regina Mills... _HOLY SHIT._

_**Emma:** _   
_**Shit - you are actually Regina Mills.** _   
_**I'm so very sorry Miss Mills, I didn't know.** _   
_**There are so many crazy scammers around here** _   
_**who just want to find girls who are stupid enough to meet them.** _

__

_**Regina Mills:** _   
_**It's alright Emma; to be fair, all of this started because** _   
_**my manager and I decided to have a girls night** _   
_**and ended up having a few glasses of wine too many.** _   
_**We thought it would be fun to just sign up and see what all the fuss was about.** _

__

_**Emma:** _   
_**This was just a joke?** _   
_**Sorry, I don’t want to take up any more of your time.** _   
_**A girl can dream, right?** _   
_**I know you aren’t gay, so it it was a nice dream for the time it lasted.** _   
_**Have an awesome life Miss Mills.** _

_**  
** _

_**Regina:** _   
_**Wait! Emma, I'm sorry if I made it sound like this was all just a joke.** _   
_**Yes, it started as one last night, but this morning** _   
_**I was about to delete the app but I found I couldn’t.** _   
_**I needed to find out if there was a chance to meet someone on here.** _   
_**With my schedule and lifestyle, it isn’t so easy to find** _   
_**someone in a coffee shop around the corner or at work.** _

**_  
_ **

**_Emma: What are you saying?_ **

**_  
_ **

_**Regina Mills:** _   
_**I'm saying that I would really like to chat with you a bit more.** _   
_**I'd like to get to know you better, and maybe even meet after a while?** _   
_**Does that sound like a good idea to you?** _

 

**_Emma:  
I... Yes SURE.  
Maybe you can email me or we could use a different form of contact that's more private?_ **

**_  
_ **

**_Regina Mills:  
Yes I would like that. My number is 016-793-7355.  
WhatsApp me?_ **

It was only seconds later that Regina saw a new message on WhatsApp. She saved Emma's number on her mobile and took a better look at Emmas profile picture there. She studied the picture of the gorgeous, young woman posing with a dog, and smiled.

 

Regina had to leave Boston for the next few days but her and Emma spoke as much as they could. The pair found out so much more about each other, and made a plan to meet at a coffee shop right after Regina returned.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is Part 2 of Swan Queen Week - Coffee Shop AU i combined it with the first day and i really hope you like it ;)  
> Emma and Regina met for the first time in person, because Regina gave her a quick visite at her work place - a coffee shop.
> 
> Still dont own Once, still not a nativ english speaker and now corrected by my awesome Beta PlayingWithShadows

Regina didn’t usually go into coffee shops. She preferred her own brew over that of the mass produced stuff that they sold in Starbucks and other coffee chains. Occasionally, she got coffee at airports or relied on the manners of the people during get-togethers with colleagues and producer, but usually, she was the one with her thermos flask and a coffee maker in her trailer on sets.

When she found out about Emma was working next to her studio as barista she knew her habit was about to change. 

The days in Boston were long; Regina worked extremely hard because the project she was completing there was very important. If it worked out well, she would have work for a ages. The script on the table was for the first movie of a trilogy, which would bump her up the ladder of fame, and bring in more money.

David Heyman, the producer, recommended her for the role and she knew she couldn’t screw it up. From time to time, she could feel how she started to drift away, and how she started to fantasise about meeting Emma for the first time.

It was crazy, because they had only known each other for six days now, but Regina felt a type of connection she had never felt before. She was drawn to Emma, and she couldn't escape it.

After another long call on a chilly Wednesday evening, the pair decided to meet right after Regina's return to Manhattan the following Tuesday.

Luckily, the producer and director of the movie loved Regina and didn’t need her any longer in Boston. Because of this, she was able to leave and catch a flight around noon on Monday. 

It was safe to say that Regina couldn’t wait any longer - she needed to meet Emma in person. She called her driver as soon as the the flight had landed, and she was then taken to a small Starbucks in Lower Manhattan near Wall Street.

Regina spotted the pretty blonde from the outside of the cafe, and started to her nervous. What if they don’t get along as well as they did from a distance?

Gathering her courage, Regina finally went inside and saw the barista – Emma, her Emma (she looked at the name tag just to be sure). The woman before her was drop dead gorgeous; with arms to die for, beautiful emerald eyes, a sharply angled jaw, wavy blonde hair, and a killer smile. The actress stared at her silently - she was even prettier than she ever imagined she could be.

With her back to the coffee maker, Emma told her to wait a second. “One moment please, I’ll be right with you in a second."

Emma turned around and couldn’t believe what she saw. It was Regina Mills. The Regina Mills. Within seconds, she silently went through every stage a fangirl goes through when they meet their favorite actress. 

Despite the fact she'd already communicated with Regina over text, and even talked to her over the phone didn’t help in that particular moment as she faced her for the first time. Regina looked even more gorgeous in real life than in the various pictures Regina has sent her during the week.

“Regina! How... Why are you here? W-Was it for me?” 

Regina smiled softly. Of course I’m here for her – I would never walk inside a Starbucks unless it's necessary, like in this case, she thought with a small smirk.

“I couldn’t wait any longer. I was able to leave Boston a day early and I thought I could come here today to meet you.” Regina smiled.

“How did you know I work here? There are so many Starbucks near Wall Street.” 

“Well, I had a bit time at the airport so I did some research. When I read twelve reviews from within the last few weeks from mostly male reviewers on a coffee shop reviewing website about a hot blonde with amazing green eyes who served them, I hoped it would be you.” The actress explained with a tinkly laugh.

Emma was shocked; no one had ever gone to that much trouble just to surprise her. Or it was better to say that no one had ever really done anything romantic for her.

The look on Emma’s face started to scare Regina. Was it too much? Did I overstep? Does Emma think I'm a creep? Thankfully, it only lasted a few seconds, because then, Emma's smile widened impossibly.

“Thank you for finding me. It was really sweet of you.” Emma didn’t know what to say - she'd hoped it wouldn’t be awkward at their first meeting, so she decided to step up the game. 

“Since you are here – what would you like to have a drink? It's on me, and if you have a bit time, I’m free in about twenty minutes. Maybe we could, I don’t know, take a walk? Battery Park is not too far from here." Emma rambled nervously.

“Relax Emma. I'm all yours; my driver already took my luggage home for me. I'm glad you didn’t suggest Central Park, because there are always so many paparazzi out there.”

“Oh I didn’t even think about it, but since I live in Brooklyn, it didn’t crossed my mind. If you want to go somewhere more private, we can do this.”

Regina smiled; that was something she missed so much with her last dates. She could feel the difference; Emma had suggested to go somewhere private because she just want time with her, and not just to be seen with Regina Mills so she'd get her picture in the tabloids.

After their talk, there was a little rush inside the shop, so Regina found a nice spot near the window so she could watch the busy streets of New York City. An added bonus was the face she had a nice view of the cutest barista ever. 

When Emma finished her shift,  
they left the Starbucks and walked slowly in the direction of Battery Park. Their hands touched, but neither of them knew whether it was too soon to take the others' hand.

Emma’s pinky touched Regina’s more frequently, the closer they got to their final destination. They lasted another five minutes, until Emma suddenly caved and took the risk, grabbing Regina’s hand. Both women couldn’t stop smiling, because it all felt perfect. 

They chatted about Emma’s studies, and how she worked at Starbucks to pay her bills. They also talked about Regina, who usually didn’t go inside those kind of shops. They even talked about the different bird species they saw on their way through the park.

It felt so normal - it was the most normal she'd felt for a long time. Of course, Emma knew that she was an actress, and there would come a time when they would have to discuss that. But, Regina would that dating someone so far from the movie industry was refreshing, because most of her former dates tended to show off what they had achieved with lists of movies or famous directors they'd worked with.

Reluctantly, Regina told Emma she had another meeting that evening, so they parted ways at six o'clock, but they made plans for the next evening - their first official date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you want me to go on? ;)


End file.
